Why James Cook is the NFL’s best running back you haven’t heard of
Analysis by Harry Enten, CNN
(CNN) — I want you to think of the best running back in the NFL. If you’re following the league at all this season, your mind should immediately go to Philadelphia Eagles star Saquon Barkley. The guy is the very definition of a “stud.”
Yes, Barkley has piled on the yards – he’s quickly approaching 2,000 – this season, but it’s also his long, breakaway runs.
Barkley is one of only two players in the league with four 40-yard or more touchdown runs.
The other is Buffalo Bills running back James Cook. Cook doesn’t have the star power of Barkley. Heck, he’s not even the star of the Bills offense: quarterback Josh Allen is.
Cook, though, is secretly putting together one of the most hidden great seasons in NFL history. He is a big reason the Bills won last week against the New England Patriots and why they’re a strong contender to finally win a Super Bowl.
What do I mean?
I’m not saying Cook’s season is one of the greatest ever for a running back. He’s not even close to having one. Cook pretty much has half as many total yards as Barkely, for example.
What I am saying is few running backs have ever done so much when getting the ball as few times as Cook.
The Bills rusher has only run the ball 182 times this year. Barkley, again being used as a benchmark, has run the ball over 300 times.
Yet, in those attempts, Cook has managed to pick up 14 touchdowns and more than 900 yards.
You know how many players in NFL history have had seasons where they ran for as many rushing touchdowns and yards with so few carries as Cook?
The answer is one: Cook is literally the only one at this point.
Arguably, Pro Football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers’ renowned rookie campaign of 1965 for the Chicago Bears is the most comparable in terms of rushing. He, like Cook so far, ran in 14 games, and put up 867 yards and 14 touchdowns on 166 attempts.
The point here isn’t to say Cook is Sayers. The Chicago Bears legend, after all, was a rookie who was also returning kicks and had about double Cook’s receiving yards.
I’m merely pointing out that the Buffalo man is doing something special here.
Indeed, Cook is among the league’s best right now when given the football. His 5.1 yards per carry is 10th best (among qualifiers). He is tied for the league lead in rushing touchdowns with Barkley’s teammate, quarterback Jalen Hurts and Baltimore Ravens’ sensation Derrick Henry (whose team has already played their Week 17 game).
Combined with the much more heralded Allen, Cook forms the only backfield in the league with two players in the league’s top 10 in rushing touchdowns and yards per attempt.
If they score a rushing TD in either of their two remaining games, the Bills will score more this year than any other Buffalo team in history.
This is what makes the Bills such a dangerous offense. They’re not just passing with authority; they’re running with authority. The Bills run the ball on a larger percentage of their plays (48%) than the league average (45%).
When you have a well-balanced offense, it makes the opposing defense’s job far more difficult. The running game has not been such a big part of Buffalo’s overall offense in any of its playoff campaigns in the Allen era.
We are a far cry from 2020 or 2021 when the Bills ran on a mere 41% of their offensive plays.
The big reason for this shift is the emergence of Cook. Cook is a great halfback to complement Allen’s fullback-like skills – as I’ve pointed out before.
This is only the second season Allen has been in the league when he doesn’t lead his team in rushing touchdowns.
And Cook is doing a shockingly high percentage of his share with plays starting a long distance from the end zone. As I mentioned at the top, he is one of only two players this year with four 40-yard or more touchdown runs.
Cook is already the lone Bills player in franchise history with four 40-yard or more touchdown runs in a single season.
The one Cook had last week put the Bills on the scoring board, after they fell behind by 14 points to the usually inept Patriots. The average team loses about 87% of the time when trailing by 14 points early in the second quarter, which is where Buffalo found itself.
Cook helped spark the Bills who went on to score the next 17 points as well. He did so when Allen was having one of his worst games of the season.
Pretty good for a player in Cook who isn’t the best on his team or even on his offense.
Favorite play of last week
I mean it’s obviously this run by Cook in which he went 46 yards for a touchdown a little bit into the second quarter.
It was his second 40+ yard touchdown dash in as many weeks, and boy, did I enjoy both.
An unhappy memory
It feels like the Bills can gain a yard whenever they need to at this point – at least if given more than one play to do it. In fact, they’ve scored a touchdown on every possession this season on either their first try at their opponent’s 1-yard line or if given more than one opportunity of having the ball at the opponent’s 1-yard line in a given possession.
In Super Bowl XXVII, the Bills had three chances early in the second quarter to put the ball in from the Dallas Cowboys’ 1-yard line. Had they scored, the game likely would have been tied at 14 points.
On 3rd and goal, running back Kenneth Davis seemed like he was going to score until he got stood up by Cowboy linebacker Ken Norton Jr.
The Bills would fail to score on that possession and would get blown out 52-17 in the game. They’d go on to lose to the Cowboys in the next Super Bowl as well.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
